Claude Berda and Paula Amorim are the new owners of the tourist assets of Herdade da Comporta
The Vanguard-Amorim Properties consortium was used to buy the assets of the Herdade da Comporta Fund: Comporta Links and Comporta Dunes.
Rioforte and Novo Banco today gave the deal a green light and parties assembled this morning in Lisbon, at the invitation of Gesfimo, the Fund's management company, voted the deal through.
Shareholders of the Herdade da Comporta Fund decided to sell the fund’s assets to the only bidder left in the contest, Vanguard Properties, owned by Claude Berda and Amorim Luxury, owned by Paula Amorim. The price is said to be €158.2 million.
The two major shareholders of the Fund, Rioforte (59%) and Novo Banco (15.5%), approved the sale of these two main assets. Minority shareholders opposed the deal or abstained.
Heiress and businesswoman, Paula Amorim, said that "Comporta's new future begins now," stressing that the consortium believes "unconditionally in a development model that guarantees sustainability" in the region and creates jobs.
The tourism projects will be approached, "with commitment and a sense of responsibility," explained Paula Amorim, "Commitment because we believe in the potential of Comporta and of our country as a quality residential and tourism destination – and a sense of responsibility because it is our firm intention to guarantee that this development respects the local community, nature and traditions."
Environmental organisations on Monday claimed that the Comporta estate will end up being filled with ‘white elephants’ if it is sold to real estate developers and sent a letter to the Minister of the Environment, criticizing the sale which will transform, "a vast agro-forestry space in a residential and tourist complex."
If this sale goes ahead, it would mean "giving private individuals crucial decision-making power for the environmental and social future of the territory,” the anti’s claim.
Zero, Quercus, Associação Comporta Utopia, GEOTA, Alentejo Litoral pelo Ambiente and the League for the Protection of Nature all will be watching the development of this once natural stretch of Portugal's coastline between Alcácer do Sal and Grândola, but without the power to intervene unless the project strays from design criteria first licensed in 1993.
